With Chelsea badly needing a win against Brighton & Hove Albion, fans were left surprised when Cole Palmer’s name was missing from the matchday squad. Of course, the Englishman has dealt with niggling fitness issues throughout the course of the season. But no injury had been reported in the media coming out of the Manchester United game.
Many had even started to speculate whether it was because of something that had happened behind the scenes at Chelsea. Now, we have an update on the situation. And it is not a positive one for the Blues.
Palmer is once again dealing with an injury, which has led to him being dropped against Brighton & Hove Albion. It is nothing to do with the groin issue that he has been dealing with for a long time now though.
Instead, according to Lloyd Canfield, who is a Chelsea reporter for The Sun, Palmer has a hamstring injury.
Cole Palmer picks up new injury and left out of squad vs Brighton
It would be safe to say that Chelsea need Palmer at his best right now. He is the type of player who can win games on his own. But unfortunately, we have not seen that version of him for quite some time as he continues to deal with constant injury problems. This is a new one to add to the alarmingly fast-growing list.
The extent of the hamstring issue is not known. Will Palmer be back in the next game? Is he out for the rest of the season? We do not know.
But one would think that if it was an injury of magnitude, that news would have broken out in the media by now and we would not have had to wait till the lineups were announced to find out that Palmer was not playing.
Can Chelsea get a win against Brighton without Palmer?
Well, Chelsea have not been winning games lately. Now, it remains to be seen if a further weakened team, without Palmer, can do anything.
This is a must-win if they want to have any hope of remaining in the Champions League qualification race. That being said, based on form, it is hard to imagine Chelsea picking up a win against Brighton at the moment, as hard as that is to admit.
If Chelsea do lose this game without scoring a goal, for the fifth Premier League match in a row, it would match a feat we last saw back in 1912.
